These flower panes from Hannah Read-Baldrey’s Flowerbomb! are a wonderful way to display your dried flowers preserved in resin. They look truly magical when hung in a window with sunlight reflecting the beautiful colours of the flowers throughout the room. Alternatively, display as a collection on a wall.
YOU WILL NEED
- Small silicone baking sheets (with sides) or silicone Swiss roll trays
- Clear crystal resin
- Selection of dried flowers
- Velvet ribbon, 3mm–5mm (1/8in–1/4in) wide
PLUS…
- Newspaper or an oilcloth
- Tray
- Plastic gloves
- Clean plastic container
- Lolly stick
- Tweezers
- Small block of wood
- Twist drill with 4mm (5/32in) drill bit
- Scissors
BUDS OF WISDOM
The silicone baking sheets are used as a mould for the crystal resin and they will need sides to contain it; once used for this purpose, the baking sheets should no longer be used for preparing food. Do make sure you have sufficient resin to fill the silicone baking sheets you intend to use. It’s a good idea to create a few panes at a time, as once you have mixed your resin, you cannot store it.
METHOD
- Before you begin, protect your work surface with sheets of newspaper or an oilcloth and prepare a space for your resin panes to rest undisturbed for 12–24 hours while they dry. Make sure your silicone baking sheets are perfectly clean and dry. Place your silicone sheets on a tray so that if you need to move them, you can.
- Now create your design from your collection of dried flowers. First draw a rectangle the size of your silicone baking sheet onto a spare piece of paper and start to lay out your flowers as you want them to appear in the resin: a combination of big and small flowers works well, and you can overlap them for more complex designs, or keep them separate for simpler patterns.
- Next, put on your plastic gloves and make up the resin. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to mix together the crystal resin and the hardener in a clean plastic container using a lolly stick.
- Pour a 2mm–3mm (1/8in) layer of the mixed resin into your silicone sheets. Next, position the dried flowers on top of the resin using the tweezers. Once you are happy with the design, pour another 2mm– 3mm (1/8in) layer of resin on top to cover the flowers. Your flowers may move a little throughout the process but you can use the lolly stick to push them back into position in the first hour of setting.
- Let the resin dry and harden fully as outlined in the manufacturer’s instructions. Once the resin is completely dry, you can release the dried flower panes from the silicone moulds, which should be easy to peel back.
- Make the hanging holes in the top two corners of the pane: place the small block of wood under each corner and drill a hole using the twist drill. Cut a piece of velvet ribbon, thread it through one hole then the next and tie it in a bow. Your panes are now ready to hang.
This project is one of many amazing flower projects from Flowerbomb! by Hannah Read-Baldrey.
Photograph by Tiffany Mumford.
